Landry is home for the holiday

DALLAS - Former Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry was at home for Thanksgiving dinner after his release four days earlier from a Dallas hospital where he was undergoing treatment for his leukemia.

Landry left Baylor University Medical Center on Sunday after receiving chemotherapy, said his wife, Alicia. Landry was set to remain under outpatient care. She said her husband is awaiting a follow-up examination to determine the results of the chemotherapy.

"He doesn't hurt or anything. He walks in the evening," Mrs. Landry said. "When the weather's nice, we walk outside."

Although the family was gathering for Thanksgiving dinner, the guest list was short because the chemotherapy has suppressed Landry' immune system, leaving him more vulnerable to infection.

Landry, 75, has been under treatment since May for acute myelogenous leukemia, also known as AML, a cancer that impairs the production of blood cells.

Tests showed in August that the disease had at least been brought to the stage of temporary remission but that more treatments were necessary.

Earlier this month, Mrs. Landry said her husband had not yet entered a state of remission.

Landry, who led Dallas to five Super Bowl appearances and two victories, was too weak to attend an October banquet at which he and former Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach were honored with Lifetime Achievement awards.

Landry ran the Cowboys for 29 years, beginning with the initial season of the franchise in 1960. His final season was 1988, and he was fired after Jerry Jones bought the team in 1989.

He is the third among NFL coaches with 270 career victories.

Tom Landry Jr. has said he remains "cautiously optimistic" his father will enter into remission.

The city of McAllen and Dallas-based Hunt Realty Corp. - which owns the proposed training camp site - issued a joint statement Tuesday saying time was running out to build in time for next year's camp.

"The likelihood of relocation for next summer is still open to question, but with each passing day, timely completion of construction becomes less likely," Gene Sanger, president of Hunt Realty Corp., said in a statement.

The Cowboys have yet to approve the terms officials in McAllen and Mission, Hidalgo County and the Rio Grande Valley Sports Authority agreed on for hosting the team's summer 2000 training camp at the Sharyland Plantation in Hidalgo County. CARRUTH CHARGED: Carolina Panthers wide receiver Rae Carruth was charged Thursday in Charlotte, N.C., with conspiracy in the drive-by shooting last week of his pregnant girlfriend.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg investigators went to Carruth's south Charlotte home shortly after 6:30 a.m. and asked him to accompany them to the police station downtown, Capt. Sean Mulhall said. Carruth complied and was placed under arrest at the station. FASSEL's MOTHER DIES: Dorothy Fassel, the mother of New York Giants coach Jim Fassel, has died after a lengthy illness. She was 76.

She died in Phoenix on Wednesday night, Fassel said.

"My mom was a real fighter," Fassel said in a statement released by the Giants Thursday morning. "When she passed away, it was peaceful."